How can I rename a project folder from within Visual Studio?

andersjanmyr picture andersjanmyr · Oct 17, 2008 · Viewed 509.8k times · Source

My current solution for renaming the project folder is:

  • Remove the project from the solution.
  • Rename the folder outside Visual Studio.
  • Re-add the project to the solution.

Is there a better way?

Answer

andersjanmyr picture andersjanmyr · Oct 22, 2008

TFS users: If you are using source control that requires you to warn it before your rename files/folders then look at this answer instead which covers the extra steps required.


To rename a project's folder, file (.*proj) and display name in Visual Studio:

  • Close the solution.
  • Rename the folder(s) outside Visual Studio. (Rename in TFS if using source control)
  • Open the solution, ignoring the warnings (answer "no" if asked to load a project from source control).
  • Go through all the unavailable projects and...
    • Open the properties window for the project (highlight the project and press Alt+Enter or F4, or right-click > properties).
    • Set the property 'File Path' to the new location.
      • If the property is not editable (as in Visual Studio 2012), then open the .sln file directly in another editor such as Notepad++ and update the paths there instead. (You may need to check-out the solution first in TFS, etc.)
    • Reload the project - right-click > reload project.
    • Change the display name of the project, by highlighting it and pressing F2, or right-click > rename.

Note: Other suggested solutions that involve removing and then re-adding the project to the solution will break project references.

If you perform these steps then you might also consider renaming the following to match:

  1. Assembly
  2. Default/Root Namespace
  3. Namespace of existing files (use the refactor tools in Visual Studio or ReSharper's inconsistent namespaces tool)

Also consider modifying the values of the following assembly attributes:

  1. AssemblyProductAttribute
  2. AssemblyDescriptionAttribute
  3. AssemblyTitleAttribute